Limbs
by SkinwalkerSkiddo
Summary: Rick woke up around 5:30 in the morning with a foot in his face. A short little fluffy family times fic. Rick/Daryl


_Author's Notes: This follows Molasses Mornings, Snow Day, and Most Important Meal of the Day but can probably be enjoyed as a stand alone. _

_Sorry for the delay in the next chapter of Bad Moon Blues (it'll be up in the next day or two and hopefully worth the wait!) but this dumb fluffy little thing just spewed out of me after last night's finale. I needed some happy times._

_—_

Rick woke up around 5:30 in the morning with a foot in his face.

It wasn't Daryl's foot which was to be expected since sleeping with the other man was sometimes like sharing a bed with a violently flailing octopus.

And it wasn't even Judith's little foot. That had happened before too when she would have a fussy night and he or Daryl would scoop her up and settle her in the warm space between the two of them in the middle of the bed.

Nope, it wasn't Daryl or Judith's foot. Unfortunately, this wasn't even a human foot.

It was a dog foot.

And it was in his face.

"Daryl." He rasped into the pillow—and by proximity, into the foot in his face as well—with a sleep-rough voice.

A soft snore answered him and the dog that the foot belonged too twitched in its sleep at the sound, pressing its foot closer until the rough paw pads and blunt claws were shoved up against Rick's cheek.

"_Daryl,_" He hissed louder.

Daryl hummed in his sleep and pulled more of the blankets into the giant pile he was already lost in while pressing closer to hook his calves around Rick's shins. And press his outrageously icy toes against Rick's legs. He sighed and went back to snoring very softly despite Rick whispering his name a few more times.

And then Judith squirmed against Rick's stomach, reminding him of her presence and letting him know she didn't appreciate the disturbance to her beauty rest this early in the morning. The toddler tucked her face against his ribs and curled a tiny hand up under his shirt to press chilly little fingers against his bare belly.

Rick still had a dog foot in his face.

At least it wasn't cold too.

He attempted, very stealthily, to slide a few inches away from the clinging pile of his family only to realize that during the night they had hogged up practically the entire span of the queen-sized mattress and shoved him right up to the edge of the bed. So he really had no choice but to stay put or get up and brave the freezing pre-dawn air.

He stayed put.

But there was still a dog foot in his face.

And a warm dog belly pinning his arm down. His other arm was underneath him, bent at a strange angle and developing a horrible case of pins and needles.

The mutt made a soft snuffling sound in its sleep.

The dog had turned up outside the fence a few weeks ago and Carl and Beth had snuck it in, building it a house and pleading with Rick and Daryl to let it stay. Well, with Rick anyway. Daryl had been on their side as soon as he saw the scruffy little dog.

Carl named him Tony Bark because he was halfway through a stack of Iron Man comic books.

And after looking into Tony Bark's big, sad, literal puppy dog eyes Rick had fallen in love with the little mutt pretty quickly too.

But then somehow it had become an inside dog—which, when you live in a giant tree house, takes some creative carpentry to make it doable for the dog to go in and out to do its business—abandoning its dog house for night-time sleeping and coming indoors to usually spend the night with Carl or Beth.

Some nights Daryl would bring it to bed with him.

This was obviously one of those nights. Well, _mornings_.

As if the dog wasn't spoiled enough with living in the house, eating choice scraps of meat off their plates slipped to him under the dinner table, and sharing the center of attention with Judith but it also got to sleep in the bed.

_Under_ the covers.

Except for its foot. Which was still in Rick's face.

With some creative contortionism Rick managed to free the arm pinned under his own body without jostling his daughter too badly as she slept soundly against his chest and used it to gentle push the dog foot out of his face.

Tony Bark huffed in annoyance and wriggled further down the bed so it could curl around Judith's warm little body. His furry sides heaved a sigh as he tucked his head against her back and went back to sleep.

Despite the rude awakening at 5:30 in the morning Rick couldn't help but grin into the quiet darkness.

His family was safe and sound; some sleeping peacefully at the other end of the house and the rest sprawled out on top of him here under a pile of threadbare old quilts and blankets. They had found some peace here.

With his one remaining free limb Rick stretched it out to rest it over his daughter and the dog curled protectively around her and cup his hand over what he thought was probably Daryl's hip but it was hard to tell since the other man was burrowed underneath a wadded up pile of the majority of the blankets.

Rick closed his eyes and rested his head back against his pillow to catch another hour or two of sleep, nestled amidst his warm and happy little family.

He had just dozed off when one of Daryl's arms tangled up in a quilt suddenly flung itself across his face.

Rick didn't even bother trying to move that limb. Instead he just sighed and drifted back to sleep, hoping he wouldn't be smothered to death before he woke again.

END


End file.
